We got the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) reports in for the second half of 2023, and the swamp influence over the incumbent I am challenging is was even worse than I had expected.

The message of the Tom Glass Republican primary campaign for Texas House District 17 is that there is a sharp contrast between experienced, grassroots, constitutional conservative champion Tom Glass and swamp-installed, Paxton-impeaching, Dade Phelan-controlled incumbent Stan Gerdes.

There are 2 proofs of that – the vote by Gerdes to impeach Paxton and the sources of funding for Gerdes.  The Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) reports for the second half of 2023 are now out.  And boy, do we have the receipts of the extent of control that the Austin swamp and Dade Phelan have over Stan Gerdes!

Here is a table highlighting the differences between Tom Glass and Stan Gerdes in the 2-say race for HD 17 in the GOP primary:

Gerdes’ swamp involvement was worse than I thought.  I sent out a press release this morning talking about how the information we had before today showed that Gerdes got half his funding from the swamp.

But now we have the full picture.  Gerdes got 83.3% of his funding from a combination of lobbyists, political action committees (PACs), and campaigns which are the quintessential definition of the Austin Swamp. Only 4.3% of his funds came from in-district.

Just as last cycle, the largest donor to Gerdes is the Paxton-bashing Texans for Lawsuit Reform with $69.5K donated in the reporting period.  Associated Republicans of Texas Campaign Fund donated $6,500 in opposition research on me.  (I wonder if they used the same guys that Hillary used to make up the fake dossier on Trump.)

And disgraced Speaker Dade Phelan reports $29.5K in donations to Gerdes. (I have seen a mailer by Phelan to the district for Gerdes during that period that does not appear to have been reported by Gerdes.)

The Republican voters of Caldwell, Bastrop, Lee, Burleson, and Milam Counties have two choices in the primary that starts on February 20 – an incumbent completely beholden to the Austin swamp or a grassroots-funded, experienced, educated, constitutional champion.

I predict that Republican voters of HD 17 will agree with me in overwhelming numbers that, “The district needs a representative to Austin, NOT a representative from the Austin swamp to the district!"

We just need to get the word out.  If you want that to happen, you must do your best to systematically reach out to your network of friends and neighbors to let them know that there is a real choice in the primary and that Tom Glass is the man if you want to be represented in Austin.

The good news is that I have $49K cash on hand at the beginning of 2024.  With the cash I have been told I will get and what has already come in in 2024, we have the bare-bones money we need to get the word out with paid advertising.  Gerdes had $80.9K.   But, word of mouth in the country beats big bucks with fancy ads and glossy mailers.

As my friend Brett Rogers says, “Talk is cheap.  So do a lot of it.”

The bigger picture of this race is that a stolen, corrupt federal government and globalists have declared war on Texans and everything we hold dear.  This is not business as usual time in Texas or the US!  The next line of defense in that war is Texas – our legislature, our governor, and our attorney general.  But the swampy Texas House acts like it is business as usual.  To defeat the war on Texas and everything we hold dear by DC and globalists, we must drain the Austin Swamp.  And my Texas House District 17 race is a big part of that effort.

Please do everything you can do to spread the word to your HD 17 contacts.  And, if you can, more money will do even more to make sure the word gets to the voters.